Please define 'shorter'. If you just want less typing, use a subroutine:

#nvl : a common pl/sql command
sub nvl { defined ($_[0]) ? $_[0] : $_[1] }
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Or, you can use the fact that perl will use the second occurance of items in the assignment, but it might be less obvious, and they can override anything:

my $defaults = {
    requires_login => 0,
    template_file => 'template.tmp',
    inner_template => '',
    %_
}
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